The 21st Chinese-Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition |22 July 2022
Prize winners in a souvenir photograph
Shamad Japha excels
Shamad Japha is the grand winner of a Chinese song contest organised recently by the Confucius Institute at the University of Seychelles (UniSey) auditorium, Anse Royale.
Hailing from UniSey, Shamad will be selected to participate in the Chinese-Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competition in China as Seychelles’s contestant.
The second prize winners are Thinaya Senlinee Dayawansha and Thallurah Labonte, and the third prize winners are Mary-Vine Pierre, Prathiksha Hemanth Kumar and Vania. The other competitors won the honour of participation in the final. In total, 11 people took part in the competition.
The event was graced by the presence of Chinese Ambassador Guo Wei and the vice-chancellor of UniSey, Joelle Perreau.
Ambassador Guo congratulated and thanked the Confucius Institute for organising this event and congratulated the participants.
“Learning Chinese is no easy feat. Congratulations, you have learned some Chinese and started to sing in Chinese. Through Chinese and Chinese songs, you have opened another window to China, leading to Chinese civilisation, a civilisation with a long history. I hope you will know more about China, and learn more about Chinese culture and its current situation. I hope one day you will promote the friendship between China and Seychelles through Chinese language,” noted Ambassador Guo.
Ms Perreau added that the Chinese Bridge-Chinese Song Competition has brought vitality and motivation to Chinese language learning in Seychelles. “The theme of the Chinese Bridge event was ‘One World, One Family’ which was demonstrated in the event, because during the whole process of the event, everyone helped and supported each other like a family, communicated, learned and improved from each other.”
The judges were from different organisations in Seychelles and the leading judge was Xiaoju Lownam, conductor of the National Choir.
The Chinese Bridge Chinese Proficiency Competitions are large-scale international contests organised by the Centre for Language Communication and Education in China since 2002. This programme provides a platform for Chinese learners from around the world to show their Chinese language skills, to share their learning experience, to examine their learning outcome, and to build a bridge to promote their friendship across the globe.
Since its inception in 2002, the competition has become a popular international event among Chinese language learners worldwide, and is known as the Olympic Games for Chinese language learning. In Seychelles competitors joined in the Chinese Bridge from 2018, with the characteristic of Chinese song competition held annually in the final.
From then on, more and more competitors joined in the competition with better and better performances. In 2019 and 2021, there were two candidates from Seychelles – Julio Charles and Olivia Marday - who competed in the China division and got the honour of certificates.
Chinese Bridge has become a bridge connecting the hearts and minds of youth around the world under the theme of “One World, One Family”. Because in the process the learners support and learn from each other, they make friends with each other in the competition, like a family.
The atmosphere of the whole competition venue was warm, and everyone enjoyed a feast of Chinese songs brought by Chinese learners.They cheered for every candidate and congratulated on their achievements.
During the event, Moutya dance by UniSey students brought Seychelles culture to all the guests and was warmly welcomed by everyone.
This competition showcased the best results of the contestants over the years, fully demonstrating the talents and hard work of Chinese language learners in Seychelles.
Vidya Gappy
